Lucio Vanotti

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Lucio Vanotti

Sign, matter and surface are the variables of Lucio Vanotti’s work. Purism, reductionism and concision are the instruments he uses. The expression is crystal-clear: fast, efficient, anti-romantic just like a mathematical formula.

Intended as a daily object, the item of clothing is reduced to its basic form: extreme to the point of abstraction, yet easy to use. Perfect simplicity, being the result of a long editing process, captures tensions and energy without turmoil being visible on the surface. By removing all that is superfluous, the designer subtracts each piece to the meaningless flux of seasonal change, offering the customer with something personal, but also with a new awareness. The choice of semi-artisanal production carried entirely in Italy, in this sense, is a necessary consequence more than a programmatic manifesto.

The collection is a repertoire of possibilities: rational pieces for men and for women, a few completely interchangeable, are conceived to be arranged and rearranged in individual compositions. The form-function theorem is solved fusing beauty and utility and avoiding ornamentation. What is not there, what has been edited away, is more important than what has been left. A clear, precise sense of suspension dominates: what really matters is the grain of the fabric, in its untouched pureness; absolute geometries become alive around the body, in a constant short-circuit between the second and third dimension; the seams and darts that define an item’s structure turn into a dry form of embellishment. Nothing else needed.

Nothing inspires me like...Homes. Every collection is like designing a house, and I think about who would live in it. This was my favorite game when I was a child. For example, for the SS12 collection, I was inspired by the Tugendhat house by Mies Van De Rohe, and for AW12/13, I imagined an Italian Renaissance house.

I hope...That a big change will take place in people's ideals. I'm hoping for a new life, where we consume less but better. Everything must go more slowly, also in fashion. We don't need much to be happy, but we need quality. I think it's immoral to buy pants at 20 Euros made halfway around the world. We are no longer citizens, but consumers, and we need to consume ethically.

Cultural influences...I like minimal art and am especially in love with Carl Andre. I have kind of a fetish for his work. I like Italian rationalist architecture and also Aldof Loos. I hold the ideas of Martin Margiela and Giorgio Armani in great esteem. I like Michelangelo Antonioni...Michael Haneke...my influences are endless.

I got where I am...Because I want to be free, because I love to express myself in creativity.

Fashion can sometimes...Be absolutely nothing.

I scream...When I'm stuck in traffic. I hate driving in town, it makes me feel like being in a straitjacket.

Money makes me...Happy, but only because I need to be free. I'd rather live in a system with no money.

Pain comes from...Envy, everyone should love him/herself, and concentrate on their own idea.

My dreams are...A small house across by sea...as simple as that.

Faith in... Freedom of choice, freedom of individuality.

I get bored easily...With egocentric people. I cannot understand how people can be so stupid to believe that they are more interesting than others.

Creativity comes from...A desire, something that is not yet, something that will be, and then will disappear.

If I could...I'd do a collection only when it's also time for a new collection.

I wouldn't pay for...Being alive. I think that everything else now has a price.

I love getting older...Yes, I do! But I hope to grow old without hearing about financial crises, the Middle Eastern crisis, christmas shopping, new hits, box office champions, balances, discounts all my life. We need to change the centre of our lives.